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Imagine how desperate people must be to get aboard a boat barely fit for purpose and then largely drift across some of the world’s most dangerous stretches of open water in the hope of finding a better life.
At least 45 people died last week — with dozens more missing — after the boats they were traveling in sank off the coast of Djibouti. This was one of the worst losses of life of refugees at sea since 2019.
The two boats had set off from Yemen carrying 310 people before sinking in the Red Sea, just 150 meters from the coast — they would have had land in their sights.
They would have been exhausted after their perilous journey, but presumably were relieved that this part of their voyage was almost over.
And then it happened.
There was coverage of the incident in some media, but Lebanon and Gaza have dominated the headlines.
People dying in small boats continues to happen on an all too regular basis; in fact, it is getting worse — but you could be forgiven for not noticing.
Fatigue has settled in. Ukraine was once the top story, then Gaza and, for now at least, Lebanon has become the unwitting center of attention.
Meanwhile, when the boats capsize and sink, these people become another statistic, like the 56 Somali and Ethiopian migrants who died in June, with 140 others reported missing, after their vessel capsized in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen’s coast. On that occasion, 31 of the dead were women and six were children.
In the English Channel this year, 23,533 people are known to have crossed from France to the UK as of Sept. 15, but 47 people have died in that same period.
The risks these people face are not new. People have been fleeing their home countries for decades and they keep dying.
According to Statista, a staggering 3,105 people died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2023. In May 2024, the number of recorded casualties for the year stood at 880.
But these do not tell the complete story. There is no accurate figure of exactly how many people have died in the Mediterranean.
According to the Statista report, 12,000 people are believed to have drowned between 2014 and 2018 but their bodies have never been found.
The world knows this is a very real issue — the UN Security Council acknowledged in September 2023 that the number of deaths had surged that year.
People dying in small boats continues to happen on an all too regular basis — but you could be forgiven for not noticing.
Peter Harrison
There seems to be no clear effort to help these people. The British still talk of “stopping the boats” and there are Americans who still seem to want their border wall, while the number of people prepared to take the ultimate risk is climbing.
It is not just at sea. A report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees released in July revealed that more migrants cross the Sahara Desert than the Mediterranean Sea.
The report highlights the much less reported number of deaths of people making the journey across the desert, stating that “1,180 persons are known to have died while crossing the Sahara Desert for the period January 2020 to May 2024, but the number is believed to be much higher. During the same period, around 7,115 people on the move were reported to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea.”
Of these, 42 percent died in vehicle crashes and 24 percent from the harsh conditions due to exposure, dehydration or starvation, while 12 percent died due to violence.
This has been a big election year and one of the main topics of conversation has been migrants. Around the world, refugees are dehumanized — they are referred to in numbers, with the word “refugee” often followed by “crisis.” They are referred to as anything but “people.”
With so many of their deaths unrecorded, we know little about their stories.
Few countries seem willing to take these people in, asking instead “why can’t someone else deal with this issue?”
The UNHCR recently highlighted the case of one family driven out of Syria; a family of well-educated, career-driven people who suddenly found themselves sleeping rough, working their way through various countries until they made it to France.
Shahm Maskoun, 28, arrived in France unable to speak the language, but he was lucky. He had the determination to continue his studies, attaining not one but two master’s degrees, and he learned to speak French.
He is now involved in a program trying to educate people about the plight of refugees. His message is that it is not the refugees that are the problem, but the perception of these people who have been forced out of their homes.
According to the UNHCR report, there are about 65 million people seeking protection in countries that are not their own. “And whenever possible, they are making the best of it, trying to market their skills and learn new ones, find work and opportunity and make connections,” the report adds.
People uprooted by war are often branded as threats, the UN said in 2018, and this is still happening. There are millions turned away at borders, left to perish at sea or detained “indefinitely in horrific conditions,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that year, as he called for a return to dignity, human rights and a sense of shared humanity. Yet, six years on, these people are still seen as a problem.
Back then, Grandi said: “The language of politics has become ruthless, giving license to discrimination, racism and xenophobia.” It seems the same is happening even now.
We will never know the names of many of those people who died on the boats that sank, but they were people — people who were hoping for a better future and to once again contribute to society. They were shop assistants, doctors, school teachers, parents, siblings and children.
And the irony is that countries could benefit from the skills these people bring with them.
- Peter Harrison is a senior editor at Arab News in the Dubai office. He has covered the Middle East for more than a decade. X: @PhotoPJHarrison